We have all seen it—you hit Google to find a product or a service and you end up on a website with a design that screams 1993. Or better yet, you find a website that looks up to date, but since you are viewing the site on your mobile, you can only see tiny dots instead of a true font. Functionality issues are yet another huge turn-off when people find your digital storefront for the first time. Five or even three years ago, businesses could get away with an amateurish website but these days the bar has officially been raised.

YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE DEFINES YOU

Now more than ever, prospects get their first impression of the quality of your business from your digital storefront or social media presence. Depending on the types of marketing strategies that you have decided to employ, clients may be finding you on social media, via a search engine result or even on a social engagement app such as Yelp. Having a firm grasp of SEO tools can give you a leg up when you are researching your business presence online and deciding how to optimize it. There is a very good possibility that you may feel over your head when it comes to where to start, and this is where online marketing experts can really prove their worth to your organization by creating a content or niche marketing strategy that will draw prospects into your inviting storefront and bring them step-by-step through your sales conversion funnel.

KEEP YOUR GRAPHICS CLEAN

Individuals are much more likely to engage with your site and your social media presence if you have taken the time to be visually engaging. Large, well-designed lifestyle images help tell the benefit story to your prospects and customers alike. Videos are also a strong way to help tell the story. As engaging as good photography and visuals are, that is how much cluttered graphics and over-the-top design tricks can detract from the overall professionalism of your site. Creating a balanced design for your mobile and desktop website requires a light hand with the design elements and a strong visual understanding of colors and graphics—yet another place that you might want to bring in professionals to help create a cohesive internet marketing strategy.

SIMPLE NAVIGATION IS CRITICAL

Gone are the days of extensive drop-down menus with detailed information of exactly where to click to find things in every possible way people could want to browse. Instead, navigation trends are incredibly simple and straightforward, often with only a few key buttons and an expandable “hamburger” menu—the three horizontal lines you will often see in mobile apps and websites that drops down a shortened version of the menu.

MOBILE CAN NOT BE AN AFTERTHOUGHT

Mobile commerce is alive and well, and growing by leaps and bounds. Many organizations may find that they are getting upwards of 25% of their website traffic from small form-factor mobile platforms, with up to 40% or more coming from phones and tablets combined.

The pace of digital marketing for businesses is accelerating rapidly—much more rapidly than most small business owners can keep up with. Employing local San Antonio online marketing experts is a more cost-effective way of keeping your online profile up to customer expectations.

Have you seen some of the websites that people try to pass off as professional these days? We’re talking bad graphics, hard to read layouts and content that sounds like a preschooler wrote it in their sleep. And don’t get us started on businesses that don’t even HAVE a website! Wake up everyone… this is your virtual business card, and having a beautifully curated, well thought-out and continuously updated website is paramount to getting your clients or customers through the door.  But we get it- websites are hard- and techy- and downright intimidating. We don’t expect you to learn code or how to build a website overnight, and neither should you. So put down your Coding For Dummies: 101 and give us a call at 2Ten Marketing, to build you the website of your dreams, without the glitches and DIY website nightmares that would be sure to follow.

SOURCES:

http://www.collinscompanyadv.com/2014/04/06/can-bad-web-design-hurt-my-company-credibility/
http://www.yourtrainingprovider.com/blog_main/bid/140297/How-Poor-Website-Design-Can-Damage-your-Business
http://www.markbrinker.com/a-bad-website-can-hurt-a-local-business